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THE CROWNING EVENT 




A DISrOlKSE ON THE OCCASION OF THE 



FALL OF RICHMOND, 



PREACHED ON SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 1865, IN 



^hrist fitiangeticHt Jieformd (l|fiurtj), 



GBEEN STREET, NEAR SIXTEENTH, PHILADELPHIA, 



BY THE DP^STOR., 



Rev. SAMUEL H. GIESY, 




PHILADELPHIA: 

JAS. B. RODGKRS, PRINTER, 52 & 54 NORTH SIXTH STREET. 
1865. 




THE CROWNING EVENT: 



A DISCOIKSE 0\ THE OCCASION OF THE 



FALL OF RICHMOND, 



PREACHED ON SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 1865, IN 



d[hrist firaujgdiral |^4^rmd ^hurdj, 



GREEN" STREET, NEAR SIXTEENTH, PHILADELPHIA, 



BY THE PASTOR, 



Rev. SAMUEL H. GIESY, 



PHILADELPHIA: 

JAS. B. RODGERS, PRINTER, 52 & 54 NORTH SIXTH STREET. 
1865. 



1» 



To THE Rev. S. H. Giest: » 

Dear &')•— Having been deeply impressed with the Thanksgiving sermon, preached by 
you on Sunday, April 9th, 1865, in accordance with the proclamation of the Governor, and 
believing its circulation would be productive of good, we respectfully solicit a copy for 
publication. 

Yours, truly, 

JOHN WIEST, 
EDWIN BOOTH, 
C. N. BROCK, 
R. ROTHERMEL, 

J. S. FRY, AXD OTHERS. 

Philadelphia, April 10th, 1865. 



Phil.ujelphia, April 11th, 1865. 

Gertfl^mfn— The sermon, a copy of which you so kindly solicit for publication, was 
written in cheerful compliance with the Governor's proclamation of thanksgiving for the 
Nation's triumph at Richmond, but with no thought of its publication. Yielding to your 
judgment, it is placed at your disposal. 

Respectfully yours, 

SAMUEL H. GIESY. 
To 

Messrs. J. Wiest, E. Booth, C. N. Brock, 
and others. 



DISCOURSE. '^ 



Matt. 1.3: 1(5,17. "But blessed are your eyes, for tliey see: and your ears, for they heat"; 
For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those 
things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear, and 
nave not heard them." 

In April, 1861, the fall of Sumter sent a thrill of 
patriotic indignation throughout the entire country. 
In April, 1865, the fall of Richmond, the enthroned 
and vastly fortified centre of rebelhon, sent a thrill of 
deepest gratitude and most enthusiastic joy through- 
out the length and breadth of the land. Almost 
simultaneously with the raising of the old flag over 
the ruins of Sumter we find it waving in triumph over 
the defiant capital of treason. The rebellion has been 
crushed; they, who rose up to overthrow the govern- 
ment, have themselves been overthrown; they, who 
plotted the country's dismemberment, have been over- 
taken with ruin; treason has been punished; Fort 
Sumter has been avenged. " The Lord has triumphed 
gloriously." The government has been sustained; the 
cause of freedom has been vindicated; the sacred 
rights of humanity have been secured to millions of 



6 DISCOURSE ON THE 

oppressed beings; the Union has been preserved; the* 
nation is free, A war, inaugurated on the most 
gigantic scale, and putting forth the most tremendous 
efforts to secure forever the right of proj)erty in 
human beings, and by governmental authority legal- 
izing the oppression of the slaveholder, has destroyed 
that tenure altogether, and slain the giant iniquity 
itself The treasonable schemes, intended to rivet 
more tightly the fetters of the bondsman, have, guided 
by an unseen hand, served to break forever the gall- 
ing chain of involuntary servitude. The wicked at- 
tempt to establish a republican government upon the 
basis of slavery, as its "chief corner stone" (in- 
famously spoken) has utterly and ingloriously failed. 
We ought to rejoice to-day. It would be the basest 
ingratitude to that God who has vouchsafed the na- 
tion such signal triumphs over her enemies not to re- 
joice to-day. We may with all our powers of soul 
sing this morning the "Te Deum laudamus." As 
never before, we may smg the doxology : 

•'Praise God, from -.vliom all blessings flow! 
Praise Him, all creatures here below ! 
Praise Him above, ye lieavenly Lost! 
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost." 

Blessed are our eyes, for they see; and our ears for 
they hear the thrilling news of this grand and glorious 
consummation — the nation still one — undivided and 
indivisible — the star-spangled banner waving in ma- 
jestic triumph over a land more free than ever. 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 7 

But, we cannot forget that this great event has been 
reached through a vast expenditure of the best blood 
of the nation. What invaluable lives have been sac- 
rificed on their country's altar, and in the sacred cause 
of freedom and humanity ! Ah, thousands upon thou- 
sands have desired to see those things which we see, 
and have not seen them; and to hear those things 
which we hear, and have not heard them. They 
fought, and bled, and died, but entered not into the 
glorious reward of their labors. Freely they poured 
out their blood on many a . hard-fought battle-field, 
endured hardship, exposure and peril, but lived not 
long enough to see an imperiled country come forth 
from the fierce conflict with banners waving in 
triumph. Oh, that those fallen heroes but knew the 
joy of this hour ! Knew that their lives had not been 
sacrificed in vain! Oh that their eyes could see what 
our eyes now see, and hear what has fallen on our 
ears, and so thrilled our hearts with the swelling emo- 
tions of gladness and gratitude. But bravely breast- 
ing the fury of the death-storm, thousands upon thou- 
sands have fallen in a noble and honorable service. 
How many, the records of eternity only shall disclose I 
They sleep in the sea, and in the swamps around that 
captured stronghold of rebellion so long defiantly 
flinging back the intrepid soldiery of freedom. They 
sleep in honored, and thousands in unknown, graves — 
at Fredericksburg and Antietam, at Shiloh and Donel- 



8 DISCOURSE ON THE 

son, at Vicksburg, and above the clouds at Lookout 
Mountain, at Gettysburg, at Dallas and Atlanta, at 
Chattanooga and Nashville, and in the signal triumphs 
of the cause they loved so well, before captured 
Petersburg and Richmond. Noble heroes, they know- 
not their country's triumph! Their eyes, closed in 
heroic death, see not what our eyes see — ultimate and 
decisive victory resting upon the banners of freedom. 
Their ears, hushed in the patriot soldier's grave, no 
sound shall awaken to the glory of this hour. Seeing 
what they, in the fatal issues of the terrific ou-tset 
were not permitted to see, shall they be ungratefully 
forgotten, and their graves neglected. The national 
cemeteries at Gettysburg, and Alexandria, and For- 
tress Monroe, and City Point, and Chattanooga, and 
other points where the bodies of the fallen heroes have 
been brought together and laid down side by side, 
show how utterly impossible it is for the memory of 
their heroic death and deeds ever to be obliterated 
from the national heart. Though no board, nor stone, 
nor the diamond pen of history shall preserve their 
names upon the scroll of fame, yet, as long as the 
world stands, the stirring events in which they bore 
so honorable a part, and the great result they helped 
to achieve, will never pass from the memory of a na- 
tion thereby saved from dismemberment and entire 
overthrow. In the proper rejoicings of this hour, how 
can we forget those, known or unknown, who, falling 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 9 

with their face to the foe, built up a huge breastwork 
of human bodies between danger and our peaceful 
homes ? 

And there are others, who, on this glad and grateful 
day, see not what our eyes see, and hear not what our 
ears hear. Honored statesmen have passed away be- 
fore the triumphant day dawned — men, whose gifted 
pens wrote stirring sentences in vindication of the 
righteousness of the country's cause, and whose 
eloquent tongues thrilled other souls Avith patriotic 
impulses. Ah, the most eloquent of American states- 
men, with a stainless reputation, a public record as 
pure and unsulUed as an angel's robe of white, who 
so nobly, and even to the exposure of health, gave all 
the powers of pen and tongue — none so eloquent — to 
his country's service, passed away suddenly and sadly 
to the nation, while darkness and clouds still en- 
veloped our country's cause. Would that Everett 
had Kved to see what we have seen, and hear what 
we have heard! 

More favored have we been. We have hved to see 
an assailed government thoroughly Adctorious, We 
have lived to see the well-disciplined and skilfully 
handled forces of the enemy scattered, we confidently 
beheved, beyond all possibihty of presenting again an 
opposing front. We have lived to see the most infa- 
mous rebellion in all history effectually crushed. We 
have lived to see the goddess of liberty crowned with 



12 DISCOURSE ON THE 

sanna! Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in 
the name of the Lord," did not know the full sig- 
nificance of that earthly coronation. And, even so, 
we may not be able to compute or even conceive of 
the vast results of these grand triumphs of national 
arms and authority, for which we are directed offi- 
cially to render thanks to Almighty God. Never 
was there a Palm Sunday thus made doubly glorious. 
In the full spirit of the day and the occasion we may 
give expression to our jubilant and grateful emotions. 
The grand issue, to which the God of nations has con- 
ducted this terrific contest for national existence and 
unity, imposes, foremostly, this duty upon all Chris- 
tian churches and people. 

We should thank Him to-day for that warm, 
ardent, enthusiastic, and unyielding patriotism, which, 
not for one moment, shrank from the tremendous de- 
mands, and the unparalleled sacrifices, made neces- 
sary in the terrible alternative of war forced upon the 
nation. Only think of the immense requisitions 
made upon the people in the way of material contri- 
butions to the soldiery on their way to the field of 
battle, and for their comfort and relief when brought, 
wounded and maimed, bleeding and sufiering from 
the scene of carnage and conflict, where death held 
high revel. Have these increasing requisitions been 
met? Ah, in the whole history of the world, there 
has been nothing like this in-pouring of contributions. 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 13 

both in money and material, for the wants of the 
thousands upon thousands upon whom the calamities 
of the war pressed most severely. Funds and stores 
have flowed, like a steadily swelling river, into the 
treasuries of those commissions, intrusted with the 
sanitary and spiritual condition of the soldiers. AVhat 
vast sums have been given to provide comforts for the 
wounded, and religious instruction and food for all. 
Wherever our armies have j)eiietrated, these com- 
missions, maintained by voluntary contributions, have 
pressed with their stores, their boxes of good reading 
matter, and their mostly unpaid agents, full of Christ 
and the love of souls. And the millions of dollars 
alone needed for this Christian and Sanitary branch 
of the great work have been most promptly and 
cheerfully furnished. Why? Because of that noble 
and inextinguishable spirit of philanthrophic patriot- 
ism, which, from the very first shock of the war, 
fired the breast of the people. 

New channels of trade and business were opened 
up. Greater facilities for accumulating wealth were 
at hand. Fortunes were made in a day almost. And 
out of this in-pouring abundance, the people have 
given most freely, most generously and largely. The 
government has not wanted for a single dollar. How 
surprising the rapidity and universality with which 
the several national loans have been taken! From 
the poor man's fifty dollar bond up to the milHonaire's 



14 DISCOURSE ON THE 

thousands, millions on millions have thus been in- 
vested by the people, showing their most implicit 
and universal confidence in the ability of the govern- 
ment to meet eventually all its obligations; and this, 
too, let it be borne in mind, under combined and 
successful efforts to depreciate the public currency. 
This remarkable feature in the case has made this 
nation, in this momentous struggle, a grand spectacle 
to all the nations of the old world. How confidently 
was our national bankruptcy predicted! How diffi- 
cult even, at one period of the war, Avould it have 
been to have negotiated a foreign loan ! How ready 
are the moneyed men of other lands to take our bonds 
now! But, through disasters and triumphs, through 
gloom and hope, through defeat and victory, through 
the seasons of well nigh crushing despair, the war, 
costing its $3,000,000,000 has been carried on to its 
speedy conclusion without a single dollar of a foreign 
loan. The people have themselves furnished the 
means for its successful and continued prosecution. 
The thing is marvellous. It is unparallelled in the 
histor}^ of any other nation. No wonder that the 
heretofore ruling powers of the earth have looked on 
utterly confounded. And well they may be. It 
shows us in a truly astounding degree, the immense, 
we may say, the exhaustless resources at command. 
Had the war cost twice that enormous amount, the 
means, we verily believe, would have been forth- 
coming. 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 15 

Now, what is the secret of this grand spectacle? 
In what fact are you to find the clue to all this steady, 
unfailing, and universal giving on the part of the 
people to the support of the government in this, its 
sanguinary hour of trial ? Where, but in that noble, 
patriotic spirit, which had resolved that "the Union 
must and shall be preserved?" And for this unfailing 
spirit of patriotism we have need to-day to be truly 
thankful. 

The mighty question, submitted by the leaders of 
rebellion to the arbitrament of the sword, has by the 
sword been decided. The RepubHc has been saved. 
And this in itself to-day is sufficient cause for grati- 
tude to Almighty God, aside even from its immediate 
and pregnant results. The Governor of our Com- 
monwealth, in calling the churches to this thanks- 
giving service, very properly uses this strong language. 
"The republic is saved. Let us give glory to the 
Lord, who hath given us the victory. Again let us 
say, glory to the Lord who hath inspired our heroic 
people, that during four weary years, though often 
baffled, defeated and disheartened, they have persisted 
steadily in the great cause, and have poured out their 
blood and treasure like water for the salvation of the 
country." 

There can be no doubt that the wicked purpose of 
the rebellion was the breaking up of the old govern- 
ment, and the formation of a new one, answermg their 



16 DISCOURSE ON THE 

own political designs. The attempt to justify their 
appeal to arms by a doleful wail over invaded rights, 
"was no support whatever in the facts of the case. 
The history of the government, as drawn from its le- 
gislative enactments, from 1820 and upward, shows a 
vastly different record. Instead of there having been 
any interference on the part of the general Govern- 
ment with so-called Southern rights, unfortunately, 
we think, new concessions and stronger guarantees 
were given on every fresh demand for them by the 
slave-holding power. This spirit of compromise on 
the part of the North was continued, until, in order 
to avert an impending and threatened civil war, the 
famous, or rather infamous'"" fugitive slave law was 
enacted in 1851. Supported by the best men in the 
nation, that was hailed as a settler of the vexed and 
agitating question. But, as subsequent facts proved, 
it was only transferring the dispute from the halls of 
congress to the people. The attempted arrest of fu- 
gitive slaves in different places and states, under the 
most l^rutal circumstances, and of a number of colored 
persons known to be free, but, by parties interested, 
sworn to be long escaped slaves, aroused the indigna- 

*Especially odiovis and objectionable in the feature of allowing the al- 
leged fugitive no right of trial by jury. A colored man, seized by one 
claiming liim as his slave, may have been free, and his parents before him, 
but this law allowed him no privilege of introducing evidence to that eifect 
for his protection. Vide the law. A number of instances arc on record of 
persons having lived for fifteen or twenty years in unchallenged freedom, 
being seized and hurried away to life-long bondage. 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 17 

tion and slumbering ojDposition of the Northern peo- 
ple to the whole system. It was impossible to compel 
the inhabitants of the free North to aid in the rendi- 
tion of fleeing slaves to their pursuers. The instincts 
of humanity were ngainst it. Those enjoying the 
sweets of liberty could not lend themselves to the re- 
quired work of delivering fugitives back to the mercy 
of their owners. The law ran counter to the feelino-s 

o 

deep lodged in the human heart, and its reactionary 
effects hurried on the opposition to that system of in- 
voluntary service, which culminated at last in the 
horrors, and woes, and wide-spread calamities of this 
terrific civil war. Hence that very stroke of legisla- 
tion, in the unwise sj)irit of compromise prevailing at 
the time, made necessary to pacify southern anxiety 
and disquietude, which was intended to rivet more 
tightly the fetters of the bondsman, was, in fact, one of 
the most potent causes operating to bring about that 
general emancipation of the slaves which is one of the 
direct results, though not the original purpose, of this 
sanguinary war. 

These are simply the unvarnished facts in the case, 
which every one, at all familiar with the history of the 
stirring times in which it is our privilege to live, 
knows full well. The giant iniquity seeking to en- 
throne itself still more securely in its control of the 
government, has itself been dethroned. And in this, 
there is great reason for gratitude to Almighty God. 



18 DISCOURSE ON THE 

We could have preferred the great end having been 
reached by peaceful measures, operating through a 
number of years. But it is a question, whether the 
quiet and noiseless potencies of the gospel would for 
ages have accomplished the extinction of human sla- 
very. 

The storm cannot uproot an oak without tearing up 
the ground all around it, and in its fall bearing down 
other trees of the forest. Like a huge boa-constrictor, 
in its tightening folds crushing out the life of its vic- 
tim, so this giant wrong, by new and more stringent 
enactments, had well-nigh bound the federal govern- 
ment hand and foot; and its bands of political domi- 
nation could not be severed without leaving a track 
of blood, broad and deep, throughout the entire land. 
God be praised, that good has been brought out of evil. 
And God be j)raised, that in this "irrepressible con- 
flict," the republic has been saved. 

What imminent perils beset us in this direction! 
The rebellion itself presented a bold, defiant, and da- 
ring front. Thirty years' familiarity with the idea and 
probability of such a conflict between the tAvo sections 
found the South to some degree prepared for an ap- 
peal to arms. The outbreak of the rebellion found 
the government shorn, like Samson, of all its locks of 
strength. Its ships of war were quietly sailing in dis- 
tant seas. Its munitions of war had been ofiicially 
transported to southern forts. Treasonable men held 



PALL OF RICHMOND. 19 

high positions. The governmental forces were on the 
remote frontiers. An army and navy had to be im- 
provised to meet the terrible emergency. But flushed 
with that patriotic ardor and devotion that more than 
met the President's first call for troops, we really 
knew not the danger, which from the very first 
threatened the existence of the republic. Subsequent 
appalling disasters hardly served to arouse us to a 
proper sense of our country's peril, and remove that 
vain-glorious confidence and consequent depreciation 
of the enemy's numbers, determination, and resources, 
Avhicli well nigh were, in several instances, our utter 
ruin. 

But these facts are as familiar to you as they are 
to me. The great matter for which we have to praise 
Almighty God, to-day, is, that these things did not 
effect the complete overthrow of the government. 
We have to bless God that the Republic has lived 
through it all. To bless Him, that it has lived in 
spite of it all — lived through all disasters, through 
grave military blunders, and through mortifying 
defeats, and through seasons of gloom — hved to this 
crowning act and glory. Blessed are our eyes, for we 
have been permitted to witness this complete and 
triumphant vindication of the national cause. 

The result just reached is the end of the rebellion 
and the end of the war. And this certainly is some- 
thing to bless God for. 



20 DISCOURSE ON THE 

It has been well said: "The fall of Richmond is 
practically the fall of the Confederacy." By some of 
the most prominent leaders in the rebellion, the suc- 
cess or failure of their bloody undertaking was felt to 
hang on the fate of their capital. In the possibility 
of that very contingency which has just arisen — the 
overthrow of the rebel seat of power — the head and 
front of the bold conspirators holds this language in 
last year's message to his truculent Congress: "Not 
the fall of Eichmond, nor Wilmington, nor Charleston, 
nor Savannah, nor Mobile, nor of all combined, can 
affect the issue of the present contest." But the 
most prominent and independent representatives of 
Southern opinion and feelings have not accej)ted this 
declaration of the rebel chief, touching the non- 
importance of the capital to the success of their 
cause. An outsjwken journal in that city, over 
whose ramparts now floats the old flag, quoting these 
words of President Davis, says correctly: "Let not 
this fatal error be harbored till it takes root in the 
imagination. The evacuation of Richmond would be 
the loss of all authority and respect toward the Con- 
federate Government, the disintegration of the army, 
and the abandonment of the scheme of an inde- 
pendent Southern confederation. The war, after that, 
would speedily degenerate into an irregular contest, 
in which passion will have more to do than purpose ; 
which would have no other object than the mere de- 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 21 

fence or present safety of those immediately persist- 
ing in it. The common sense of the country, the in- 
stinct of every man and woman in the land, contra- 
dicts the idea that any possibility of an independent 
South would remain after its capital was abandoned, 
its government set adrift, and its army withdrawn 
into the solitudes of the wilderness. Its loss would be 
material ruin to the cause, and in a moral point of 
view, absolutely destructive, crushing the heart and 
extinguishing the last hope of the country." 

We believe this no magnified statement of the vital 
importance of the rebel capital to the success of the 
rebellion. The one has confessedly been bound up 
in the fate of the other. The overthrow then by the 
federal forces of "the rebel seat of power seals the 
final doom of the entire confederacy," and thus virtu- 
ally ends the war. 

And certainly this is a matter for which we ought 
to praise God. For four long and weary years, with 
varied success, alternating defeat and victory, this 
war, so frightful in its casualties, and circumstances 
of cruelty and barbarity to prisoners, has continued. 
How many have fallen in battle, died of wounds or 
disease, or in some loathsome prison pen, will never 
be known on earth. The whole land is full of de- 
solation and sorrow. Wherever the contending armies 
have pressed, the country, for miles and miles around, 
has been marred and marked with graves. The nar 



22 DISCOURSE ON THE 

tion is truly a nation of widows and orphans. War 
is a Moloch of fearful destruction. Every hamlet 
throuohout the land has made its contribution to the 
ranks of the army; and every hamlet, perhaps, has its 
representative among the fallen heroes. And each 
martyr to liberty was dear to some sorrowing heart at 
home. The widow in her desolation looks in vain 
for the return of her husband. Killed in battle, and 
she knows not where they have laid him. In vain 
the boy expects his sire's coming. Where the fight 
raged the hottest, there he nobly fell. The brother 
will no more grasp his brother's hand, who led the 
regiment forward in the deadly charge.* They have 
fallen in freedom's cause, and are not here to rejoice 
with us to-day in the full and glorious triumph, which 
they died to achieve. 

If, with this decisive victory, the necessity for such 



* Major Henry H. Giesy, youngest brother of the writer, a prominent 
member of the bar at Lancaster, Ohio, entered the service as Captain on the 
first call for three months' volunteers. Served this period in Western Vir- 
ginia. At its expiration returned, and raised a new company, and re- 
enlisted for three years. His first terrific engagement was Shiloh, and 
shortly after, for gallant conduct, was promoted to Mnjor of the Regiment 
over three other captains whose commissions antedated his. In the great 
battles of Gen. Sherman on his way to Atlanta, the Col. of the 4Gth Ohio 
Regiment being assigned to the command of a brigade, the command of 
the Regiment devolved on Major Giesy. He nobly fell in his country's 
service at Dallas, Georgia, May 28th, 18(34, when leading the regiment in 
a furious charge. An appointment to Lieut. -Colonel had just been made 
by the Governor of Ohio, but failed to reach him before the fatal wound 
had been received. A justifiable pride in a brother's brave record will be 
a sufficient apology for this brief notice. He fell in the prime of man- 
hood, in his 29th year. 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 23 

sacrifices shall pass away, we may well sing praises 
to God. War, even under its mildest form, is a terri- 
ble scourge. And a people may well rejoice, when 
the question in dispute is solved, and the contending 
armies are disbanded. In the prospects for a speedy 
termination to this destructive civil war, we would be 
recreant to our most obvious duty, not to bless God 
that the end has come — and such a trlumpliant e7id. 

The more recent intelligence gives us ground to an- 
ticipate the complete overthrow of the rebellion in 
the entire capture of its main army.* But even if 
that event should not just now transpire, we may 
bless God that its prestige is gone, and its militar}^ 
power broken. Under such circumstances, peace long 
prayed for — ^peace established on a righteous and per- 
manent basis — peace bringing happiness to the entire 
land, and more than wonted national prosperity — 
cannot be much longer delayed. Blessed are our 
eyes, for they see the first streaks of the morning. 

Another cause for devout gratitude to God in the 
result of the war, is its triumphant vindication of the 
possibility of free government. In the very outbreak 
of the rebellion, on the Continent, but in England 
especially, it was regarded as a foregone conclusion, 
that the "Great Republic" would not survive the 



* The 9th of April, 1865, will be forever memorable in history as the 
day on which Gen. Lee surrendered the Army of Virginia to Lieut. -Gen. 
Grant. 



24 DISCOURSE ON THE 

storm which was sweeping clown upon it. The wish 
being father to the thought, the case was thus hastily 
prejudged. So far from there being any doubt at all 
of our downfall, it was regarded and treated as an 
accepted fact. The English never dreamed the nation 
had such powers of endurance and self-preservation. 

They pretended to see in our political system the 
seeds of destruction. Popular governments, in their 
view, offering such a wide field and tempting induce- 
ments for the plottings of designing and aspiring- 
demagogues, must eventually fall to pieces in the 
^vrangling and feuds engendered for place and power. 
In these facts, lying on the surface, and the furious 
claim which was set up for State sovereignty, they 
professed to see the elements of our national disinte- 
gration and certain dissolution. They affected to 
penetrate the veil of the future, and were not slow to 
predict the utter failure of our Republican Institu- 
tions, All the British Reviews of 1861 contained 
able and lengthy articles on the failure of Demo- 
cracy. I recall now an article of that character, on 
what the writer was pleased to call the ''bursted 
bubble." The facts which have recently transpired 
do not exactly correspond with the monarchist's ex- 
ultant conclusions. The power of the government, 
in the recent events before Richmond, and a little 
further South, have made the issue somewhat difier- 



FALL OF RICHMOND. 25 

ent from that then anticipated or predicted. A week 
hence, the news carried out by the "Australasian" 
will inform them in England, and on the Continent, 
that the Eepublic yet lives, and means to live, not- 
withstanding their sympathy with the rebellion, and 
wish that it might have been otherwise. Republican- 
ism can no longer be regarded as an experiment; it 
is a self-demonstrated fact. 

And this is one feature in the case, which may 
well fill our hearts with rejoicing in view of the re- 
sults of the war. No people under the heavens have 
larger and richer privileges than we. No people 
have so much to do in the determination of those 
exercising authority. No people have so much to 
say in marking out a line of national pohcy. No 
people have so much to do and say with regard to 
the conduct of high officials, and the jDroceedings of 
legislative assemblies. The people constitute the go- 
vernment. The foundations of our national fabric 
are laid, "where alone they ought to be laid — on the 
broad consent of the people." 

To what a terrible ordeal have the princijDles of 
popular government been subjected! But thank God, 
they have survived the shock of the battle. The 
furious storm has swept over, and left us, both our 
country and our liberties. The government is stronger 
now than it was four years ago; has a firmer hold upon 



26 DISCOURSE ON THE 

the confidence and heart of the ^)eople; and is better 
able to cope with its enemies, either domestic or 
foreign. The result of this sanguinary struggle has 
fully vindicated the stability of republican institutions. 
And in this fact, finding hope and promise for the 
future, we have especial need to bless God for the 
signal mercy He has been pleased to vouchsafe the 
nation. Let the interposing of His hand — that Hand 
which no power can withstand — that Hand, in recent 
events, so manifestly made bare in our country's cause, 
lead us to sing unto the Lord, who hath made our 
forces to triumph so gloriously. Let us joyfully and 
gratefully bring all the glory to the foot of that Throne 
which is back of all earthly thrones, kingdoms, and 
powers. Not to be thankful under such circumstan- 
ces, and with such vast causes for it, pressing upon 
heart, and reason, and conscience, were indeed to show 
ourselves ingrates, unfit to inhabit such a land as this, 
and really meriting the iron yoke of despotic rule. 
Let this then be our national anthem to-day : " I will 
sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously : 
the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. 
The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become 
my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare Him 
a habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him." 
Another cause of national gratitude is the enthrone- 
ment of God in the heart of the nation. It is not to 
be disputed, that these severe chastenings of the Al- 



FALL OF RICHMOND. Zi 



mighty have led to the undisguised and universal re- 
cognition of His existence and sovereignty. This has 
been shown in the frequent proclamations for thanks- 
giving upon the achievement of important victories, 
and for fasting, humiliation, and prayer in seasons of 
national disaster and gloom, prompted by the deep 
religious convictions of the noble chief Executive. 
This has been shoAvn in the brief dispatches of some 
of the Generals, announcing success against the 
enemies of the country, acknowledging God's favoring 
hand. This was sho^vn in the spontaneous and en- 
thusiastic rejoicings of last Monday. One placard, 
reaching from the fourth story down, containing the 
several dispatches which so thrilled the people with 
joy, concluded with this proper recognition of God's 
mercy: "The Lord be praised." =^ And what a mag- 
nificent spectacle was that, when by thousands of 
persons, with heads uncovered, in front of City Hall, 
New York, and that sacred relic of the Revolution — 
Old Independence Hall, the doxology: "Praise God, 
from whom all blessings flow," was sung with an 
unction and spirit never before felt, or shown. All 
this goes to show, that this severe disciphne of four 
years has produced some happy effect. Wickedness 
does indeed greatly abound, and alas, still in high 



* See Stanton's dispatcli, April 9th, 1865, ascribing tlianks to Almighty 
God for the surrender of Gen. Lee's forces. 



28 DISCOURSE OX THE 

places. But the nation is far from being infidel. Nay, 
if official acts are to be taken as any standard of 
judgment in the case, more Christian than ever. The 
war in its individual and social influences has been a 
fearful demoralizer, and yet the nation, as such, in its 
governmental principles and proceedings, has been 
lifted nearer the throne of God. 

The prophet Zechariah speaks of a time coming, 
when the motto: "Holiness unto the Lord," shall be 
engraven upon the bells of the horses, and even the 
common utensils of the house. The gold and silver 
of the earth are the Lord's. Practically, however, 
this has been denied. Recently it has been acknow- 
ledged in a very expressive way. This inscription: 
"In God we trust," within a year stamped upon a 
a new coin, has, while it shows the nation's f}-ust, re- 
deemed unto the Lord the currency of the United 
States. 

Our gratitude to-day is immeasurably augmented, 
when we consider this triumph of the govern- 
ment in its far-reaching results. The immediate 
generation, in which vast historic movements occur, 
reap not, and is, by no means, able even to calculate 
the advantages growing out of them. Which of those 
noble patriots, who signed his name to that immortal 
document — the Declaration of Independence — the 
formal corner-stone laymg of the temple of liberty — 



FALL OF EICIIMOND. 29 

ever dreamed of the national greatness even our eyes 
have been blessed in seeing, and the vastness to which 
their work has expanded — nearly treble the original 
number of States. Had the future, as we saw it just 
antecedent to this war, loomed up before them, how 
would those noble fathers of the Republic have stood 
amazed ! 

Equally so now; the benefits of these great events 
are not to be limited to this age, nation, or continent. 
The old world, bound yet by despotic rule, and still 
moving in the old ruts of the feudal system, must feel 
the vindication given before Richmond, to the possi- 
bility of free government. Crowned heads will be 
uneasy since democracy has not proved itself an ex- 
ploded idea — a "bursted bubble." Freedom is man's 
birthright. And the Red Sea will be crossed to make 
its possession good. This beacon light, all the 
brighter for having emerged, round and full-orbed, from 
clouds charged with fierce lightnings and deep thun- 
ders, may beckon others to the achievement of the 
dearest rights of humanity. 

Nor, are the blessings of these grand triumphs to 
be limited to the three or four millions of bondsmen 
thereby forever made free, nor the thirty millions now 
inhabiting the land. The present race of freedmen 
may be all the worse for the sudden liberty for which 
they are wholly unprepared; — but the next genera- 



30 DISCOURSE ON THE FALL OF RICHMOND. 

tion, more educated and elevated, will know better 
how to appreciate it and use it. 

And the time will come when a population of a 
hundred millions will stand where thirty millions do 
now. There are mineral and material resources here 
to sustain for centuries a vaster population than the 
enormous one just named. It is impossible to speak 
of the probable future of our country Avithout seeming 
to be most extravagant and vain-glorious. But con- 
sidering the vast territory ^^et to be occupied, the 
country may, indeed, be said only to have entered 
upon its grand career. And we do well to rejoice to- 
day over the victories just won, and the vindication 
of the national authority, and re-establishment of na- 
tional unity, when the unparalleled interests and the 
unparalleled blessings of coming generations and a 
thickening population, are considered. 

These are only a few of the causes entering into 
the just call for gratitude to-day to Almighty God for 
His great mercy. The}^ might easily be multiplied. 
These are enough, however, to inspire the poet's 
words : 

''Great God, we thank Thee for this home — 
This bounteous birthland of the free; 
Where wanderers from afar may come . 
And breathe the air of Liberty! 

Still may her flowers untrampled spring, 

Her harvests wave, her cities rise; 
And yet till time shall fold his wing 

Remain earth's loveliest Paradise." 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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